Christmas Cake (11 page)

Frances glanced over at Margaret and noticed that she had a strange look about her. “Are you okay?” she asked.

Margaret nodded and didn't explain the look or what she was feeling. “That's really lovely, Frances, what you do for Jimmy. You really are a good mother and a good friend.”

And then she laughed slightly. “So maybe you could go fishing and cook up a marlin for Christmas in Boca Raton.”

Frances smiled.

“Or maybe you could just take some of your own pots and pans and cook what you like for Jimmy and Carolyn and the kids.”

“I guess,” Frances responded, never having considered that as an option.

“Maybe they think you don't want to cook because they don't want to cook. But maybe if you told them you'd like to fix the meal, it would be nice for everybody.”

Frances nodded.

“You could even turn up the air conditioning real high and wear your sweater!” Margaret smiled.

Frances looked at her neighbor. She could see how tired Margaret had gotten in just the short time they had visited. She knew she should probably leave. She considered that she ought to be relieved by that thought; but in actuality, it saddened her to say good-bye. “I should go,” she said.

Margaret nodded. She was getting fatigued and sensed that she needed a little rest.

“What about you, Margaret?”

Margaret didn't understand the question.

“What do you want to do this Christmas?”

And even though she was tired and dying, Margaret was beginning to understand more clearly what it was she really wanted for that holiday.

Red Velvet Cake

2 eggs

1½ cups sugar

1 cup oil

1 tablespoon vinegar

2 cups flour

1 teaspoon cocoa

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

1 cup buttermilk

2 teaspoons red food coloring

 

Beat eggs with sugar; add oil and vinegar. In a separate bowl, sift dry ingredients, add to egg mixture, alternating with buttermilk. Add red food coloring. Bake in 3 9-inch pans at 350 degrees for approximately 25 minutes. Frost cake with cream cheese filling.

I
'll just put the cake on the table.” Louise walked into the house and right past Jessie and James as they sat in the den decorating the tree. She hadn't even bothered to knock.

“Okay,” Jessie responded. It hadn't surprised her to have Louise walk in. She had told her to come by because she had needed to talk to her about something important.

“It's red velvet,” Louise announced from the kitchen. “I hope you like it. This one is from Mary Jo Ledford,” she added. She started taking out saucers and pulling out silverware. “I must have twenty cakes a day show up at my doorstep.”

Jessie waited for her friend to come into the den to join her to hear more about the cake. Louise headed out of the kitchen and then over to the closet at the front door and removed her coat and gloves. She placed them in the closet and turned toward Jessie and James.

“You want me to start a pot of coffee?” Louise asked.

“There's some already made,” Jessie replied.

Louise headed into the room where her friends were waiting.

“Ever since the word got out that Beatrice had arranged for the winner of our contest to meet the Cake Lady, everybody's sending me recipes and showing up at my house with cakes.” Louise walked into the room rubbing her belly. “Let me just say that I have had the opportunity to enjoy a vast assortment of Christmas cakes.”

“Lou, just because they're bringing them to you doesn't mean that you have to sample them all!” Jessie noted.

Louise smiled. “I know it.” She sat down on the sofa across from Jessie. “But I've discovered I have a kind of weakness about cakes. And besides, if I'm going to be bribed, I might as well enjoy it!”

“So maybe Beatrice's claim has had a few benefits,” Jessie said.

“Well, if you mean these extra ten pounds, I'd say so!”

“Has she secured a prize yet?” Jessie asked.

Louise shook her head. Then she walked over to the tree to help James untangle the strands of light. “She still swears that she can get the Cake Lady.”

Jessie shook her head.

“She just won't give it up,” Louise said. “She just won't admit that she's made a mistake and let me tell everybody that this crazy story that she concocted is not true. Imagine, some television star coming to Hope Springs and judging this silly cake contest.”

“She wouldn't go for the cash prize from the church?” Jessie asked.

“Are you kidding?” Louise responded. “She said that she could never let the winner receive money for her contest.”

“Let me guess,” Jessie interrupted, “because it looks bad for a church?”

“You got it,” Louise replied. “Then she went on about the Episcopalians and how they give out money for everything.”

“What is it with her and those Episcopalians?” Jessie asked. She was opening another box.

“I couldn't tell you,” Louise said.

“Haven't you already taken the cookbook to the printer?” Jessie wanted to know. She started taking out ornaments, unwrapping them out of the tissue paper, and setting them on the coffee table.

“We'll have them back by the weekend, which is great. Folks can still buy them before Christmas next week. It's just that we don't have a winner to post inside the book. But I just thought we should go ahead and get the books done. I couldn't wait any longer on Beatrice.”

“Well, I guess they can be considered as separate, the contest and the cookbook, I mean.” Jessie found the box of hooks and started putting them on top of the ornaments for hanging.

“James, did you tie these lights together last year?” Louise asked.

He smiled. “I believe that was somebody else's doing,” he replied.

Jessie let out a laugh. She remembered that she had taken down the lights the previous Christmas and she remembered how aggravated her husband had been when he got home and saw the mess she had made.

They pulled and untangled. There were several strands all wrapped together.

“So, what is the news?” Louise asked as she worked on the lights.

“It's Margaret,” Jessie said. “She's told me something and I'm not sure what she wants me to do with the information.”

Louise finally found an end and was able to loosen a knot. She handed what she had untangled to James, who began hanging the strand on the tree.

“She said that there's something missing in her life.”

Louise waited for more.

“It has something to do with her mother and her mother's home place. She was from Texas.” Jessie sat in the rocking chair, going through the box of Christmas decorations.

Louise was able to keep untangling the strands and James kept wrapping the lights around the tree.

“I never heard her mention her mother,” Louise noted. She was very surprised when Jessie had called her to the house to talk about Margaret.

“I never knew her to talk about her either,” Jessie explained. “She died when Margaret was only a little girl. She went back to Texas to have her mother and sisters take care of her and she died in her home.”

“In Texas?” Louise asked, reaching around the tree and helping James attach the lights to the branches.

Jessie nodded her head. “Goodlett is the name of the town.” She had most of the ornaments out and on the coffee table. “Margaret said that she only went there once, the Christmas before her mother died. And that she regretted that she never went back.”

“I didn't know,” Louise said.

Louise and James finished with the lights. She stood back as James plugged them in. They all held their breath and waited. Suddenly the tree was lit up and they all applauded. Louise walked back over to the sofa.

“Well, at least they work,” Jessie commented, and gave a big smile to her husband.

“This year, I take down the tree,” James announced.

“Fine with me,” his wife agreed. And then she whispered over to Louise, “That was my plan all along.”

Louise smiled.

“I heard that,” James said from across the room.

“What is this?” Louise asked as she pulled out an ornament and showed it to Jessie. It was tangled in wrapping paper and looked like what used to be an angel. It had been made of wax and it had melted, creating an unusual shape.

“Oh, Mrs. Howard!” Jessie exclaimed and reached over, taking the ornament. She made a kind of clucking noise with her tongue. “I think Wallace made her in kindergarten.” She tried to fix the misshapen piece. “We've had her a long time,” she lamented.

“Why did you name her Mrs. Howard?” Louise wanted to know. She took the ornament from Jessie to examine it.

“Oh, I don't know. That was something Wallace decided.” Jessie shook her head. “He had it in his mind that God's name was Howard and since he made this angel to be a woman, he decided that it was God's wife and her name was Mrs. Howard.”

Louise looked confused. “Jessie, why did your grandson think God's name was Howard?”

“Because of the prayer,” James answered for his wife. He was still standing behind the tree, trying to attach a timer to the extension cord and the outlet.

Louise handed the ornament back to Jessie, still wanting to hear more.

“‘Our Father, who art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name…'” He added, “He thought it was ‘Howard be thy name.' Hence, Mrs. Howard was the angel's name.” He glanced around the tree and winked over in Jessie's direction. He recalled when his grandson had told him that story.

Louise laughed. “Well, Mrs. Howard looks like she may have played too close to the devil. She's got some pretty serious burns!”

Jessie nodded. “I know.” She studied the small ornament that Louise handed to her. “Maybe we could melt her a bit and reshape her.”

“Maybe you just need to let her go,” Louise suggested. She started pulling out a few more ornaments.

“Oh, I hate to throw away God's wife,” Jessie said. “I'll just put her over here and let Wallace decide what to do with her.” She placed the angel on the coffee table and took another one of the ornaments from Louise.

“James, honey, look at this one.” Jessie held up an ornament. It was old and made from tin.

He glanced from around the tree. When he saw what his wife was holding, he smiled. “Ah, it's your granddaddy's,” he said.

“What is it?” Louise asked. She looked closely at the ornament in Jessie's hand but was unable to decipher the shape of the antique.

Jessie smiled. “It's a train,” she said as she studied it.

“And it was your grandfather's?” Louise asked.

“Yep,” Jessie replied. “My father bought it for his father.”

“Really?” Louise asked. “Did he like trains?”

“No, it was more of a promise,” she replied, taking the ornament to the tree and hanging it. Then she continued. “He left his parents down south, Mississippi,” she clarified. “And he promised them that he would bring them up here to North Carolina when he got settled.”

James moved back behind the tree. He was going to let his wife tell the story.

“So, what happened?” Louise asked.

Jessie went back to her seat. “They died before he ever saved up enough to get them here.” She shook her head. “He never forgave himself for that, for not keeping his promise.”

The three were silent for a while. Finally James walked around to
where more boxes had been placed and picked up one from the top. “Do you want me to take these kitchen things out?”

“Sure, baby. Just put them in there on the table. I think it's mostly just a few dishtowels, maybe some coffee mugs.”

He nodded and headed into the kitchen with the box.

“Okay, back to Margaret,” Louise shifted the conversation. “Why do you think that she mentioned her mother and her mother's hometown?” she asked.

Jessie smiled and nodded her head. She was glad to change the subject. “She said that Frances Martin came over and that they started talking about Christmas plans and that Frances goes to Florida.”

“Boca Raton,” Louise noted.

“Right, Boca Raton,” Jessie agreed. “Does Jimmy have a house there?” she asked.

“A condo, I think,” Louise replied. “He lives in South Carolina, doesn't he?”

Jessie nodded. They both paused for a minute, recalling the young man whose mother lived next door to Margaret.

“Anyway, they were having this conversation and Margaret said that she realized that the one thing that she's never done is to see her people again, go back to Goodlett, Texas.”

“Was there some reason that she brought this up?” Louise asked.

Jessie shrugged. “I never heard her talk about wanting to visit out there. Have you?”

“No,” Louise noted. She thought about the idea. “I did know that she talked about visiting Texas if she ever went to see Charlotte. Do you think that's what this is about? Do you think she wants us to get Charlotte here to see her?”

Jessie shrugged again.

“Where exactly is this place?” Louise wanted to know.

“Somewhere near Amarillo. She said it was a few hours from Oklahoma City, off of Interstate 40. She said it wasn't far from the Oklahoma border.”

“I don't know anything about that part of the country,” Louise said.

“Me neither,” Jessie responded.

The two women got up from their seats and started hanging the ornaments on the tree. There was no conversation for a few minutes.

“Are we putting up a tree at Margaret's this weekend like we planned?” Louise asked.

Jessie shrugged her shoulders. “That was why I was over there in the first place, to ask her if she wanted me to bring her decorations down from the attic. She said that she didn't want to decorate her house this year.” She held up three matching red and green knitted stockings and hung them from the branches.

“Do you think she's depressed?” Louise asked.

Jessie sighed. The thought had certainly crossed her mind. “Wouldn't you be?” she asked.

Louise thought about that. She nodded slowly as she walked over to the coffee table and got some more ornaments to hang. The two women decorated without saying anything else. They considered their friend and whether they should force decorations upon her. They weren't sure what they needed to do for Margaret for Christmas.

Finally they heard a voice coming from the kitchen. “You take her to Texas.” It was James.

“What?” Jessie asked.

“You take her to her mamma's place,” James said as he walked into the room where the two women stood.

“We've never been to that place. And it's winter. You can't take off west. The weather is too unpredictable,” Louise responded.

“Then you prepare for the weather,” James announced. He stood behind the rocking chair where his wife had been sitting. “She told you about this place and this regret because she wants you to take her there.”

Louise and Jessie both stared at James in amazement. They couldn't believe that he was making a suggestion like that.

“James, it's a week before Christmas. That has to be a two- or three-day trip, at least. We don't even know if she's up for a drive that far. And then we don't even know where she's talking about. How would we make a trip like that?” she asked.

“I'm just telling you what you need to do for your friend.” He looked over at the tree. His stare was focused on the old train ornament he had just hung. “She told you about this because she's hoping that you'll make a way for her to do this last thing that she wants to do.”

“How do you know this, James?” Louise asked.

He shook his head. “I don't know about Margaret and what kinds of questions she's asking at this point in her life. I don't know what she thinks about what the doctors have said and whether she knows this is her last Christmas or not.” He looked over at his wife. “But I do know about dreams. And I know about regret. I had a few of my own and you fixed that, Jessie. You let me come back home so that I didn't have to die with mine.”